Three French nationals in their 30s have been missing for a week in the Mount Everest region of Nepal. They were surprised by an avalanche during the ascent of the Mingbo Eiger (6,070 meters).
According to French media, the case concerns 34-year-old Thomas Arvey from Nice, 27-year-old Gabriel Meloch from Briançon, as well as Louis Bachaud from Chambery. The twenty-two belong to an elite group of promising young climbers who underwent two years of mountaineering training with training and expeditions supervised by the French Mountaineering Federation. Thirty something accompanied them.
“There is little hope of finding survivors,” the French Federation of Mountaineering Clubs told AFP on Monday. The search was conducted again near the summit of the Mingbo Eiger yesterday. Flying over their route, and during a helicopter reconnaissance on Sunday, traces of climbers were seen at an altitude of 5,900 meters on the hills to the top. At this height, the rescuers saw the starting point of the avalanche,” according to the Bergsport Association. , The traces show that they succumbed to reach the summit, turned around and began descending through the climbing path. At the bottom of the ridge, rescuers found three bags, plus into temporary accommodation equipment for climbers.”
Pratap Jong Pandey, director of the helicopter service in Kailash, said he was seen from a helicopter, “a black body, possibly a bag” on a cliff. One of its planes shot down experienced mountain guides on Sunday, searching for the traces of the missing.
Mission
The three men were part of an eight-man expedition that reached the Khumbu region or Everest in late September to climb several peaks between 5,000 and 6,000 metres. The last phone call with them from a temporary residence dates back to October 26th. The other five members of the team will return to France in a few days, according to the mountaineering federation.
Nepal reopened its borders to tourists in September. Vaccinated people are exempt from quarantine. The coronavirus pandemic has forced the country of 30 million people to shut down its entire mountaineering industry. As a result, the economy, which is largely dependent on tourism, has collapsed.
The mayor of Nice expressed his condolences on Twitter to the families of the three missing people, in particular city citizen Thomas Arvey.
Christian Estrosi
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